Octal

[Ethan Dicks]

On 9/1/06, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> > Did any of the classic computers display in octal 0-7
> > rather than 3 lights per digit? Also what was the display
> > device?
>
> Sure did. The obvious example is the PDP11/34 front panel, which used
> 7-segment LED displays.
>
> I am pretty sure the PDP8/a used the same sort of display.

Yes.  I have a PDP-8/a programmer's panel (LEDs and pushbuttons) - it
is native octal.

Of course, just to be different, there's an optional null job for
RTS-8 that counts from 0000
through 1111, 2222... 8888, 9999 by toggling between two numbers to
display 8888 and 9999 on an octal display.  I can't remember the
numbers, but I'm sure it's easy to tell by wading through the RTS-8
source code.

-ethan